Goods & Not So Goods


    An overview of railway freight operations for modellers    
(from around 1830 to about 2010)



Note: This site has moved servers but the entry point remains as igg.org.uk/rail
Parts of the old site remain on myweb.tiscali and Google will find them.
The Tiscali hosted pages are not being updated as that account has been closed
due to the ending of free web-space.


This web site is a non commercial project, the information it contains was originally put together to assist my God son.
The project is on-going but I am a one-man-band so these things take time.

The layout of the pages is being simplified as I am told people actually peer at all this on mobile phones. Rather than faf about with responsive pages and CSS I decided to follow the Project Gutenberg approach and concentrate on the information rather than the appearance by making it as simple and uncluttered as possible.

This simplified style will roll out across the site as I make amendments to the individual pages.
(This should also make it easier to print out should you wish, that may be handy for things like the instructions in the Kit Bashing section).

Some info on printing out and saving the site to a CD are included in the Notes section at the bottom of this page.

Scale
The information is mostly of a general nature and the prototype data applies to all scales. There is some bias towards N Gauge in the modelling examples as that is what I was working with at the time. The models used for illustration are not 'exhibition standard' they are just models I have built for my own use or for my God son.








Index to Main Sections

Each entry is a link, click anywhere in the text to go to that section



Historical Background
This section offers an outline history of the railway freight business from 1800 to 2000. There are sub-sections detailing the role of the Railway Clearing House (RCH) and the Common User Scheme, the system of charging for goods on the railways and brief notes on the methods used for heating and lighting railway stock.





  Track and Gauge
This sections covers the history of track and track formations. The various sub-sections cover the development of track systems from early flanged rail on stone sleepers to the modern concrete based PACT track systems, turntables, points and slips, track gauge & loading Gauge, narrow gauge track and associated rolling stock, buffer stops and track maintenance personnel & equipment. The final section discusses model railway track systems, or at least those I have experimented with.






  Communications, Control and Signalling
This section covers the evolution of signalling and the associated areas of communications and operational control of the railways. The various sub sections describe Communications & Control Systems, Telegraph Poles, Cable Conduits and Switch Boxes, Bell Codes & Locomotive Head Codes, Mechanical Types & Fog Signals, Ground and Fixed Signals, Power Operated and Colour Light signals, Signal Boxes and Level Crossings, Track Circuits and Industrial Signals and a separate section discusses Basic Layout Signalling






  Rolling Stock
This section deals with the development of goods rolling stock including brakes, couplings, body types and specialised vehicles. Topics covered in the sub sections include- Chassis, Couplings & Hoses, Buffers, Wheels & Bearings, Suspension & Bogies, Brakes, body construction, BR wagon Designs, Air Braked Stock, Brake vans and brake tenders, Departmental Stock, Ferry Wagons, Rail Tanks, PO Stock and Air Braked PO stock






  Unit Loads
Unit Loads are containers, pallets and Intermediate Bulk Containers, variations on which have been in use since the earliest days on the railways. There are three sub section, Early container types discusses the history of the container up to the end of the vacuum braked goods services, Pallets and IBCs discusses these post war developments and Modern Containers, Road Railer, Piggyback and Swap Bodies discusses the post air-brake networks






  Livery
This section covers the liveries and markings used for goods stock from the pre-grouping era to about the year 2000. Individual sub sections contain details on Goods Locomotives, Traders labels and standard markings used on goods stock), the standard liveries of the Big Four (LMS, LNER. GWR and SR) goods and passenger stock, PO wagons, Tank Wagons, early British Railways livery (1948-1964), the later British Railways livery (1964 - 1975), BR TOPS era (1975-privatisation) liveries, BR Departmental Stock and BR Ferry stock. Separate sub sections deal with the liveries of the early Privatisation Era stock and the liveries and marking required on ISO Containers






  Freight Operations
This section deals with operational practice such as the formation of goods trains and their routing through the system. The sub-sections include an introduction and discussion on the categories of goods carried, categories of Goods Train and usage of rolling stock, Coal traffic and Merry Go Round Coal Services, Ore and Metals traffic, Grain and Beer, Road Vehicles, Military Traffic and Farm Machinery, Livestock & Seasonal Traffic, Petroleum Products, explosives, corrosives and compressed gasses with details of the vehicles used for these, vacuum braked and air braked Container Services, the BR Air Braked Network, Speedlink and Enterprise wagon load services and Ferry Services.
A separate series of sub-sections deals with Non Passenger Coaching Stock operations including Fish & Newspapers, Parcels and Mail, Milk (churn traffic and tankers)and Private Carriages and Motor Cars.
A third series of sub sections then details the operational use of Private Owner Stock including an Overview with sections on the coal trade, stone and lime traffic, PO Vans and tank wagons and the modern air-braked PO scene (up to about 2001)







  Railway Company Goods Facilities
This section deals with marshaling yards and goods yards, including the specialised facilities required for container handling. There are sub-sections on topics such as Shunting Methods, Refuge Sidings, Exchange Sidings and Marshalling Yards, station goods yards and their facilities, a selection of prototype goods yards and wharfs, the facilities provided for coal and heating oil, railway container handling facilities and Railway owned road vehicles.





  Wagon Loads & Materials Handling
This section covers model wagon loads. A sub section discusses the use of specialised materials handling equipment on the prototype and how this might be modelled. The various sub-sections discuss topics such as Tarpaulin Sheets on Wagons, Minerals and Other Bulk Loads, Metals and Timber, Road vehicles and Farm Equipment with a separate section on Unusual and Out of Gauge Loads. There is also a discussion on the modelling of yard and platform clutter. The materials handling side describes, Platform trucks and trolleys the methods used for, Bulk Minerals Grains and Powders as well as Liquids and Gasses. There is a section on the design and modelling of Hoists and Cranes with a section on Crane Hooks and Lifting Aids. There is a discussion on Unit Loads and a section on railway yard weighbridges.






  Available Models

This section covers the various ready to run models and kits of goods vehicles. The suppliers discussed include Peco, Graham Farish, Bachman-Farish, Dapol, Lima (discontinued in late 1980's), Hornby Minitrix (discontinued in early 1990's), Kits and Discontinued Kits as well as Continental Models suitable for British use.






  Kit Bashing

This section contains drawings illustrating the construction of various N Gauge models mentioned in the other sections. These are all 'train set' models rather than 'model railway' standard but they serve to fill in gaps in the available ranges of models and to break up long rakes of RTR or kit built models.





 
Lineside Industries

This section contains notes on various lineside industries with a bias toward inclusion on a British N Gauge layout. As a result the descriptions of the associated industrial processes are often abbreviated and some options may be too large for inclusion on larger scale layouts.





 

Appendices


Each entry is a link, click anywhere in the text to go to that section



Appendix One - Outside the Fence
This section deals with 'set dressing', general background information on the environment in which the railways operated. There are a great many sub sections detailing everything from uniforms worn by the authorities and civilians, the development of river, canal and road transport etc.





Appendix Two - Selected Pre Grouping and Joint Companies
Brief details of the history and goods rolling stock of various pre-grouping (pre-1923) railway companies. The listings are not exhaustive but include all the major players and also any companies I felt had modelling potential. Where possible I contacted the relevant association or society to confirm the details, contact details for these are appended to each company entry. Companies described include the three big joint lines; Cheshire Lines Committee, Midland & Great Northern, Somerset and Dorset Joint Rly and the various constituents of the Big Four-
LMS -Caledonian Railway, Furness Railway, Glasgow & South Western Railway, Garsatang & Knott End Railway, Highland Railway, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, London & North Western Railway, London Tillbury and Southend Railway, Midland Railway, North Staffordshire Railway)
LNER - Great Central Railway, Great Eastern Railway, Great North of Scotland Railway, Great Northern Railway, Hull & Barnsley Railway, North British Railway and the North Eastern Railway,
GWR - Pre-grouping Great Western Railway, Brecon & Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway, Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway, Barry Railway, Cambrian Railways, The Cardiff Railway, Midland & South Western Junction Railway, Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway, Rhymney Railway and the Taff Vale Rly.
SR - London Brighton and South Coast Railway, London and South Western Railway, South East & Chatham Railway, The Metropolitan Railway and the diminutive Plymouth Devonport & South Western Junction Railway.





Appendix Three - Passenger Rolling Stock
Not my main are of interest but some notes which may be useful to a beginner. Also in this section is a discussion on push-pull passenger workings and an illustrated listing of all the various multiple units used on British lines.





Appendix Four - Freight Locomotives
Alan Cox has re-written the sub section on diesel locomotives, the remainder are my own notes. I believe I have now covered every diesel and electric locomotive type and have made a start on the steam engines (the BR standard classes are described and illustrated). Completion of the coverage of the steam engines is a big job which remains to be completed. If anyone has a model of a steam locomotive which they feel captures the look of the original I would be pleased to use a photo as this means I do not have to do a drawing for each of the thousand or more types of engine.





Appendix 5 - Hale Station - Cheshire Lines Committee
A small double track station with substantial goods facilities and an interesting track plan that lends itself to modelling. I have done a little research and this may provide an interesting insight into the working of such a small station





Appendix Six - Contributors and Bibliography
The original version of this web site had several shortcomings, for one I had rather lost interest in the railways following the introduction of Corporate Blue and hence knew little of developments that followed. Several people have corrected and amended my notes on this era, for which I am grateful (although I still prefer the green diesel era for modelling). Specialist areas such as recent developments in signalling were also something of a weak point, in this instance Keith Norgrove stepped in and provided all the required information.





Appendix Seven - Links to Useful Websites for Railway Modellers
Not comprehensive but the best I could manage. If anyone has any recommendations I would be pleased to hear of them.






  Outline History of the Great Grand Fenwick Railway
This is just a potted history put together as an example of how to create a 'back story' for a layout, people tell me it is amusing and should be on the site.






Toy farms, toy soldiers, and wargaming
Simple and cheap scenery and terrain

Simple, and cheap, scenery and terrain for toy farms and soldiers - Can be used with 'wargame' tables but these are designed not to cause injury if trodden on or fallen on. I was not intending to include this on the site but a couple of people said it might be of interest with regard to scenic modelling.



Notes


Firstly sorry for the gap in service - I have put the site back up unaltered per several requests but I do plan to do a lot more work on this as time allows. As noted above this is still a work in progress, not all the illustrations are yet in place and much work remains to be done on the non-railway sections.

Thanks are due to the many contributors who were able to point out errors I had made and who have provided much of the information for the air braked era.

Feedback and in particular corrections are always welcome but I have had some issues with e-mailing from the site so for the moment that is on hold, I shall be setting up a forum to allow people to comment and ask questions (that also allows folk to answer each other).

Help Wanted

(1) I have not been able to locate any information on the rolling stock used on the original Harwich ferry.
I gather the GE/LNER purchased some ex-war department vans but I have not traced any details.

(2) Does anyone know which stations were served by the Speedfreight container service?
It may have been only London and Glasgow but I have not yet traced any details.

(3) Does anyone know where I might find the colours used on the stick on traders labels seen in the early BR era?
Any information on these would be welcome.

(4) Can anyone advise on the Tartan Arrow parcels service that ran between London and (I think) Glasgow in the BR era?
In particular I would appreciate any information on their containers (which may have been early Freightliner 27foot types>).




Printing out the pages

If you wish to print out the entire site you should be aware that it currently consists of over two hundred 'web pages' corresponding to approximately 1000 printed pages (assuming an A4 sheet size) with something over 3500 illustrations. A much better option is to save the lot to disk and bung it on a CD as that way you can use the 'search' facility on the computer to locate any references to areas of particular interest. It is also a LOT cheaper and allows you to download updated versions now and again.

Click HERE for advice on 'off-line browsing'



Ulterior Motive

Part of the reason for setting up this site was to serve as a test bed for various methods of creating web pages whilst avoiding expense (dreamweaver) or complication (notepad).
I help to support a small charity Disabled Access to Computing which provides IT support for disabled individuals and charities supporting disabled people.
One regular request is for help setting up web sites but the policy of DA2C is to train up the client or their staff to maintain the site once it is operational.
Most of the sites we support are fairly small, our only claim to fame in this area is that we have evolved a methodology that allows a blind person to (relatively) easily maintain a site.
We were asked to help with the creation of a very large website to be split across several servers (utililising the free webspaces ISP's used to offer their users) and part of what I was doing here was investigating ways of simplifying the creation of the pages for that site and working out how to spread it across multiple servers.

Software Used

Most of the work on this site has been done in CSE HTML Validator, initially the free version but I found it so useful I bought a full commercial version (which I consider a worthwhile investment, not least as it has a rather good spell check). For anyone wishing to build a site in this way I would recommend the Joe Barta on-line tutorials. These describe the manual creation of simple web pages using a simple text editor. Using 'drag and drop' software is quick and easy, but the code is often very cluttered and when you start making lots of small changes things can go badly wrong. The Notepad in Windows XP cannot be used as it now uses Unicode rather than ASCII, however there are several alternatives, many of them freeware, and as noted I would recommend CSE HTML Validator (the free evaluation version of which provides all the functions required for a simple site such as GANSG)

Modern word processors do a fair job of generating web pages, Lotus Word Pro seems to produce the cleanest code, Open Office (or the commercial Star Office) come a close second, and I find Microsoft Word requires the most cleaning-up before uploading. These days I only use CSE, although for large and complex sites I still occasionallyuse and old copy of Hot Metal Pro as I like its site managements facilities.

Doing it manually keeps the code clean and I have tried to keep it as basic and broadly compatible as possible. The result is not very stylish but it is (I hope) fairly efficient in making the information available. If you are using a high resolution screen the lines may get too long to read easily, however if you have a 'wheel mouse' you can hold down the control key and use the wheel to enlarge the text, which can make it much easier to read.



International Good Guys ~ Making the world a better place since 1971 ~ Site maintained by Disabled Access to Computing
All material Copyright © Mike Smith 2003 unless otherwise credited